In this patch we are getting a new race with a lot of mechanics being introduced in to the game, but who cares? long awaited VR Greek gods are finally here, also the "You ALL MAX" reward event has everyone busy on deciding what to choose so machina and many other goodies introduced in this patch doesn't seem as relevant. I take this one more chance to invite everyone to the Discord server, you should join the fun and discussion over there.

I have to be honest guys, I really think that adding this card to the normal diamond seal pool was unnecessary at this point. All the cards are bad, have huge downsides and could have been better on so many ways that I don't really understand why Madhead created something with such outdated standards for current content. They are plain arena mules and might do for old content, but I don't really see them going somewhere on current meta.

Sha Seng the Sand Fiend: I have heavy mixed feelings with this card.
1. He could have received a switching skill like revolutionary heroes.
2. Demon race on water is not that relevant right now... and I don't se a why to use this guy on Tan Sanzang.
3. 10 CD?, We have other board converters like Aloha and Su Huan Jen with CD8. I hope a future amelioration can fix this at least.

Golden Horned & Silver Horned the Twins: Throw Horned King and Chong Lou to the blender BAM, you get this card, with an another long cooldown... This twins could have been CD 6 and double skill like Modi & Magni. Where da heck do you want fire runes and different attributes at the same time?, I don't know.

Zhu Bajie the Heavenly Marshal: Poor pig, what the hell did they do to you? you were supposed to be the rumored upcoming black card!, but instead Madhead decided to mix Rugal and Gawain on a blender and then again unnecessary on earth because of Alibaba, and unnecessary on beast because of Odous. Then Again, traditional Tan Sanzang might be more reliable than using this guy.

Lady White Bones the Deadly Skeleton: Skelly waifu, the best artwork on this series has the most questionable stats (total 3865) and a skill that only fits Daoloth, Sakura and Rose, I don't see a use anywhere else. She could have received an extra skill that could have been useful somewhere else at least.

Spider Demon the Silk Cave Mistress: Another mixed feelings, she is fine for everyone that didn't get Black Rose Harley during Monster Strike Collab. The x3 bonus on top is quite nice, and I like the fact that it targets enemy race, we don't have many skills like that, and I think is fine because is just a condition for on-top damage. CD 10 is too long, but amelioration might be fix this in future as we have seen helping Beowulf and the likes. Total stats are bad as well sadly.

Please be sure to check the Warrior of Times even for reference and the chance to try this new leaders. This series comes to expand upon already existing content of human race in general, you can expect them to work with Imperial Warlords I, Pili Puppets, Knights of the Round Table, and Sengoku Samurai, last two by the way are currently in rotation inside the regular pool of the diamond seal. We got so much needed utility on some skills, and replacements for stuff many players might have missed on previous collaborations. Also you can expect that this patch ultimate stages and bi-weekly are tailored to be passed with humans, but since there are so many other human teams out there, not having this guys shouldn't pose a problem.

Upright Utopian - Sun Ce: There are mixed feelings regarding Sun Ce because he is a powerhouse, but the requirement of dissolving groups of 4 runes is something you have to get used to. The best way to practice this is going for babylon style of column dissolve, which also helps to trigger the amelioration skills of your members. Leader and adjutant are already boosters, the members doesn't need to be converters either because every other rune has 25% effect of water. Personally I don't find him so interesting because we have got many other water leaders recently that doesn't feel so restrictive as him.

The Untamed Fang - Zhurong: It's been a long while since a new card actually has sparked my interest on getting it. Zhurong is the leader I've actually been expecting for humans. She can work as amazing rainbow leader and can surpass Guan Yu when it comes to WFE. Whenever I see her kit I feel I must put the enchantress and some other utility cards. Other members that come to my mind for her are Rococo, Gawain, Kyo Kusanagi, Cai Wenji, and Kim the king of Taekwondo. You can go full utility or damage because the conversion is already covered by the team skill.

Sympathetic Sorcerer - Lu Xun: Earth mono has been always so good at grind, but this guy is bringing that another level, the fun part is that most earth leaders can reach the requirement of the 12 runes without much problem. Other than humans, Athena and Izanagi can also get a lot of use from this guy but not so efficient as Hideyoshi.

Dutiful Loyalist - Huang Zhong: This is a poor man's Tang Yu Rou for those that missed her back in 2015. His only advantage is that he gets cooldown reduction upon being turned off, but Tang Yu Rou in the other hand grants a 1.5x team attack buff. He is also locked for just light humans unlike Tang Yu Rou that can absorb 50% atk of all other humans and even be used as member on Zhurong because of that (not really efficient but the meme is worth the mention). He is being released because Arthur really needs this kind of card right now to shine. I forgot another thing and it's the perk of the 1.2x hp as bonus if the entire team is light human.

Single-eyed Vanguard - Xiahou Dun: Her leader skill reminded me a lot to the one of Lancelot, yet it's somehow better because once you manage to dissolve the 3 rows of runes inside the box you get 3 free combos every time. The counter attack skill is really amazing, specially if you are using Lancelot as member. Some other members that come to me on the top of my head: Gawain, Mai Shiranui, Medea, Circe, and Ali Baba.

Unfortunate Fate - Cai Wenji: I'm happy that we got another LD dissolve alternative to Huifre, with also a more flexible condition and human race. Basically her skill affects the entire board and with just CD:6 I think she is quite too powerful, specially for Guan Yu and Zhurong. Feel free to add her on water teams as well if you need to get rid of light and dark runes to overcome specific enemy shields.

Simple-minded Gentry - Meng Huo: Okey the patch updated that ugly placeholder skill for Meng Huo and now we got a really good converter that can work for WFE or Rainbow, the extra fire effect on the other runes makes me want to test him on Chessia as well.

Cowardly Warlord - Yuan Shao: He is so similar to Tsang that I thought it was just a poor man's version of him, yet Yuan Shao is different because if you use him on Arthur setup you will get a 1.9x boost in exchange of 50% of the recovery. Good thing is that you can use him along with Tsang so it's actually amazing.

We have waited too long for this and I'm happy with the results, I know that a lot of people is not happy with god runes being a way to solve the problem, but after some tests with my Athena using other races as members I think this is fine.

The divergence mode is really nice as member for the refinement (or other god teams), and also can work as leader and ally pretty well if you don't plan to play skydrop. Since the drop mechanics are not so frustrating as in the past, and the fact that you actually get rewarded by good spinning, I don't feel the need of having a lot of converters inside the team. Instead I really want to recommend you all to use members that have persistan boost effects (Medea, Shyplant, Furi, etc.) or short CD6 cooldown like Valkyries of Divine Wine, 7* Vali, and the Keepers of Worlds, you really can fill your team of members like that and the lack of runes won't pose a problem at all. Feel free to drop your team suggestions on the thread.

Meme teams of persistant effects like Hel+Xi or Michael Lucifer are expected to see the light as well. We are also pending to see how the Dark Zeus is going to work with this guys, but from the info that have been release so far he has a really short cooldown of 5 with a boost of 2x.

Madhead has a lot of surprises under the hat for this celebration and I think that this Virtual Rebirth was totally unexpected. Also I find this funny because days ago Aaronyxy joined the Discord server and said that this cards should receive the VR treatment. On divergence mode both are amazing but feel way too tailored for Hephaestus and Poseidon. Refinement in the other hand solves a lot of problems that people didn't like about their active and got their multiplier increased to the real standard of a black card. Personally I wouldn't recommend to draw on the current Gods and Demon seal because you can get both of them on Ancient Coin Seal, yet having 2 copies of the same card brings a super strong team.

New: Kirinfable did another video of Xi after the bug with the god runes was patched.

Thie first step on Machina Race comes with an alternative path for the Cyborg Scholars, I guess this is taking them away from having an Awakening Recall in the future, yet the Machina race has a lot of potential with those extra attacks and increased damage. On their alternative path their active skill seems easier to handle and it seems that they won't have access to fusion as the human path, but who knows?. Right now I don't feel there is too much to do with them since the available cards are pretty limited and I can expect their pool to grow in a future patch. I'm also thinking that patch 15.1 will introduce a rotating seal of Machina race and more bi-weeklies and ultimate stages that can support their new gameplay.

Arena

Gutsy Amazon - Guan Yinping: a max of 1.8x at CD5?, just another buff for Hideyoshi and all those earth leaders out there. Her stats are really high also. I'm not happy that this is the third earth card we get on the arena, she could have been delivered on a later date, but since Hideyoshi is available on the regular diamond seal and the ancient coin is also close it's nice to see more additions for the earth humans. I'm actually planning to farm her, on previous patch I went for Ithaqua and now he is doing really good on my VR Athena.

Coliseum

Lucky Star - Zhang Liao: Easy convert + super boost. He is meant for Sun Ce, yet he can also be a nice member for Su Huan Jen, Honda and Atlantis. I'm really attracted by that CD6. Also, 4th water card released on Coliseum.

Ultimate Lords / HorrorTwisted Voodoo - Zhang Jue: Totally meant as another tool for Arthur, yet I can see her as another potential member for Honda as well since her active brings team attack on a similar way to Alma and Fylgja. The extended time extension comes really nice when facing annoying skills like vortex.

The Alpaca Herder - Ma Chao: 6 turn 1.6x permanent effect for Hideyoshi, I'm actually happy on how many options he has been getting compared to other leaders out there. Ma Chao can work on other earth mono teams as well, but if I go to Izanagi or Athena we might consider other members instead of this guy.

Bi-Weekly Series

Emotionless Heart - Bayrou: Set damage on an active skill of such a short cooldown is fishy, but since you take Machina mechanics in consideration is because this guy can attack twice when the fuel is at full, which means that he will launch a total damage of 3.200.000. Not bad, but not really interesting for those stats and the fact that most leaders can hit about the same damage on current meta. We also have to keep in mind that he is just 5*, we are too early to see the full potential of the machina race.

Virtual Human - Yale : Fire version of the one above. Personally not that interesting to talk about about.

Guild Event

Blessings of the Deities - Fu Lu Shou: Finally a better leader for those that missed Baby King during Richman Collab. The CD 7 active skill have a very unique condition that helps a lot on the gold stages, but not so much out there I think.

I've got some requests on incrasing Loki position based on Hel performance, instead, I decided to increase the position of Xiahao Dun to best choice after players shared on Bahamut a team that was able to pass the current transmigration. Also, Azathot is one of the most common leaders able to clear that transmigration so I think is reasonable to keep him at Super Leader tier.

As you may know I was planning to keep working on the third post of this thread which covers a list of all possible members for the current meta leaders, but since we got a new subforum which is based on meta discussion for specific teams archetype I'm not sure if I should continue working on that.

General leader tiers:

Disclaimer:
- This tier list is being sort by series
- The particular order of the cards in the corresponding group displayed doesn't affect their grading.
- The placement of this cards can change over the duration of the patch by performance or feedback.
- This tier list might be refreshed every 3 days or every Monday.

Super leaders
This tier goes for cards that are mainly jackpot and can cross most stages without difficulty. Be aware that the main difference in this grade is rarity and what is possible within their built-in gameplay.

Best choiceNot rare as Super leaders, this cards are the real thing on the current meta.

StandardThis leaders have the damage of the meta but might not be as efficient or don't have as many benefits as tier A/S, cards in this tier is more than okey.

Non Standard
Usually convenient to pass some stages but can't ditch the normal damage output, or they simply work better as members.

Subpar
Leaders that don't provide as much damage as the current meta requires or are not popular at all, it's hard to spot any clear with this cards on the leaderboards.

Well this is a pretty loaded patch, I'm gonna try to updatethe first draw thread later but here are some thoughts (doing it here cause or will surely have more responses).

Greeks are great again! Too much investment though so they are not good leaders. Scholars got an alternative evolution but they lack as leaders so not recommended the a first draw.
New series rares: water guy looks fun and powerful and differently from Hideyoshi/Arthur/Lynx MH this time went fur a race-attribute combination that already has a good amount of cards and useful ones at that! For a new account going for him it is not something I can recommend.
Fire lady (the only one I'm missing and who will probably try to draw on the rate up) looks fun and powerful, it's fire= rainbow and leaning to human teams so that makes it a little less go for it recommendation but so long as you are drawing from imperial warlord 2 series everything you get can work to varying degrees so yeah, definitely a keeper.
Dark lady is lke Lancelot but better (except the active skill), the three attributes mean she has a huge member poolso most things drawn can be used, the passive rune generation works such that you only need to do it once and then all members will attack and the least skill will be fully triggered which makes it good so long as you take a turn to dissolve in the positions. So another keeper for new accounts.

That's more our less my thoughts for the first draw thread, on the other hand I have a few sounds about Sun Ce being about how it interacts with exact combo shields and orb shield, probably like the kof guy that increases combos but it is better to confirm it. XD makes me think that she can work like Iza in that she looks like a mindless farm lead after turn one where you fulfill her passive conversion condition.

Greek can with as leads in both forms which is nice and the divergent active is like a stronger Sigurd.

Machines release is weird in that it comes without much support and in the middle of a lot of things, it Greeks like there isn't much fanfare fur adding a new race.

Hmm. I gotta sleep so I don't wanna make a long post but one thing I wanna say is the 15.1 seems likely to be the rumored anime collab so we might not be seeing a really solid Machina team for a long time.

(01-23-2018, 06:34 AM)Fauxy Wrote: Hmm. I gotta sleep so I don't wanna make a long post but one thing I wanna say is the 15.1 seems likely to be the rumored anime collab so we might not be seeing a really solid Machina team for a long time.

Huang Zhong gets the x1,5 boost, too. So hes not a sub par, but a sidegrade. 2 faster CD but not x1,5 boost and only -2 instead of -5 when deactivating. Oh, and no need for harpies, or 2 max, while umbrella lady needs 1k souls and 4-5 harpies.

(01-23-2018, 06:58 AM)Akanto Wrote: Huang Zhong gets the x1,5 boost, too. So hes not a sub par, but a sidegrade. 2 faster CD but not x1,5 boost and only -2 instead of -5 when deactivating. Oh, and no need for harpies, or 2 max, while umbrella lady needs 1k souls and 4-5 harpies.

He's actually CD 15, lmao.... I guess you can try to draw 3 of him and use 0 harpies though.

(01-23-2018, 06:34 AM)Fauxy Wrote: Hmm. I gotta sleep so I don't wanna make a long post but one thing I wanna say is the 15.1 seems likely to be the rumored anime collab so we might not be seeing a really solid Machina team for a long time.

Unless it's a mecha anime!

Inb4 we get Gundam collab ogChamp:

(01-23-2018, 07:13 AM)agnesi Wrote:

(01-23-2018, 06:58 AM)Akanto Wrote: Huang Zhong gets the x1,5 boost, too. So hes not a sub par, but a sidegrade. 2 faster CD but not x1,5 boost and only -2 instead of -5 when deactivating. Oh, and no need for harpies, or 2 max, while umbrella lady needs 1k souls and 4-5 harpies.

He's actually CD 15, lmao.... I guess you can try to draw 3 of him and use 0 harpies though.

You do get an extra 1.2x HP which wasn't mentioned in the OP.

Ayyy forgot about the team skill, gonna update with those things later.

(01-23-2018, 06:58 AM)Akanto Wrote: Huang Zhong gets the x1,5 boost, too. So hes not a sub par, but a sidegrade. 2 faster CD but not x1,5 boost and only -2 instead of -5 when deactivating. Oh, and no need for harpies, or 2 max, while umbrella lady needs 1k souls and 4-5 harpies.

He's actually CD 15, lmao.... I guess you can try to draw 3 of him and use 0 harpies though.

You do get an extra 1.2x HP which wasn't mentioned in the OP.

Ayyy forgot about the team skill, gonna update with those things later.

Also add the team skill for cai wenji. Having her in a team of 3 attributes like guanyu will add 1s spin time. 1s is not nothing with a new sm or nm.